Out There

Northern New England offers opportunities for hiking, camping and sightseeing aplenty.

The Presidential Range in northern New Hampshire is home to the world's worst weather, at the peak of Mt. Washington. Winter wind speeds of 231 mph have been recorded at the top of the 6,288-foot mountain.

In the summer the weather is a little tamer, and you can hike up to the summit or take a cog railway.

Straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, the rustic villages of western Mass. Are among the remaining outposts of small-town New England. Nestled in the rolling Berkshires, Greyhound serves Stockbridge, Williamstown and other towns in the area.

Meanwhile, Vermont to the north is dotted with antiques shops and picturesque Green Mountain hamlets, Vermont is ideal for hiking on the Appalachian Trail (AT) or biking on the state's wooded dirt roads. Home to he hippie capitalist empire of Ben & Jerry's in Barre, Vermont Transit, whose buses run frequently from South Station.

The largest New England state, Maine, boasts both a beautiful, lighthouse-studed coastline and majestic inland mountain peaks. The AT terminates at Mt. Katahdin, and shoreline ports and Kennebunk and Bar Harbor draw thousands of visitors annually. Tourists also flock to Freeport to shop at L.L. Bean.